Bandcamp Is Cool & Growing – But They Still Take 15%

Bandcamp, the online music store and platform for artist promotion, has a been a boon to independent musicians.

According to a Billboard article, Bandcamp has paid artists $150 million over the last eight years. The company reported paying out $4.3 million to musicians just in the last 30 days.

Bandcamp has intentionally targeted independent artists and labels. As the company’s website puts it, “Bandcamp makes it easy for fans to directly connect with and support the artists they love. We treat music as art, not content, and we tie the success of our business to the success of the artists who we serve.”

The website allows artists to chose the way they distribute their music, from free downloads to customizable pricing.

This is a huge step forward for independent artists who struggle to find space or make any money on large centralized content distribution sites like Amazon or iTunes. These information gatekeepers squeeze out indy artists. Bandcamp creates an alternative that offers indy musicians more control and more revenue.

But it still comes at a price for the artist. Bandcamp takes a 15% cut on digital downloads. Bandcamp’s take drops to 10% after $5,000 in annual sales.

Now imagine artists connecting directly with their fans as they can now do on Bandcamp, but without having to give up a huge cut of their earnings. That would be even better, right?

That’s what LBRY offers.

No ifs, ands, or cuts.

Music on LBRY remains entirely under the control of the musician. LBRY won’t charge 15%. Nor 10%. Not even 1%. The artist reaps the reward. No middlemen. No gatekeepers are collecting fees. No censorship. No complicated hosting agreements Just artists connecting with fans and enjoying the fruits of their labor.

iTunes, Amazon, Netflix and the other big content distributors are already dinosaurs. They may serve corporate marketing machines, but they don’t do a whole lot to advance indie artists. Bandcamp is undermining that antiquated model. LBRY wants to take it to the next level.

The world doesn’t need more gatekeepers. It needs matchmakers - connecting artists with their fans - no strings attached.